On a red gold vein in the Dragon Ridge map of Cold River City, Jiang Yuan was working furiously with six types of summoned beasts! With their help, he mined 152 pieces of red gold in just one minute, over a dozen times more efficient than the others around him. In less than ten minutes, he had gathered 1,568 pieces of red gold, and the task bar for red gold changed from white to green, showing 1568/1500.
"Done, next!" Putting away his pickaxe, Jiang Yuan straddled the still-present Dragon Beard Tiger and cast a "Summoned Beast Follow" skill on the other beasts, leading them to the next material: fir wood.
Fir wood was mainly concentrated around the White Mountain Branch of Cold River City, about a dozen miles from Dragon Ridge. On the way there, Jiang Yuan opened his skill panel and glanced at the second page of life skills, noticing his "Mining Proficiency" skill had jumped from level 0 to level 7.
Soon, Jiang Yuan arrived at White Mountain Branch and plunged into the endless mountains, searching for fir trees. Mature firs were tall, over 30 meters, with gray-brown bark and conical crowns—easy to spot. Before long, he found a dense fir forest.
He put away his pickaxe and swapped to the "Logging Proficiency" skill's tool, the "Iron Saw." "Same as before, let's test the skill first!" With few people around, Jiang Yuan didn't start sawing right away. Instead, he summoned two wild boars. "Attack!" he commanded, and the boars charged at two fir trees, each two meters thick, ahead of him.
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"Huh? They both took damage?" Seeing damage numbers appear on both trees' health bars, Jiang Yuan was momentarily stunned, then overjoyed! "Let me think, which summoned beast should I use to cut trees?" He tilted his head for a moment, finally choosing the burly Mang Mountain Bear, known for its strength and sharp claws, rivaling his iron saw. "Summon Mang Mountain Bear!" A flash of white light, and two thousand Mang Mountain Bears appeared in the fir forest!
"Roar!" The bears, receiving Jiang Yuan's attack command, stood upright, roaring fiercely, their paws slamming into the fir trunks, shaking the trees. In *Ten Thousand Realms*, life materials had a uniform health of 10 points. The bears, swinging both paws, snapped a fir in half with five hits! "Ding! Congratulations, you've obtained Fir Wood*20!" Jiang Yuan watched a tree over ten meters tall and six meters thick break in two, a prompt sounding in his ear, realizing each tree yielded 20 wood pieces.
A minute later, the two thousand bears vanished. Jiang Yuan checked his task bar for fir wood and was startled to see "/2000"! "Wow, this material overflowed so much? I can sell it at the auction house for some cash!" His eyes lit up, spotting another quick way to get rich, and he said happily.
After gathering fir wood, Jiang Yuan searched for pine forests on the White Mountain map. Pine was common, and he soon found a spot. Repeating the trick, a minute later, he had over 30,000 pine logs.
Leaving White Mountain Branch, Jiang Yuan returned to Cold River City's capital and teleported via the NPC to the Jianghuai map within the Ten Thousand Alliance's territory, looking for granite quarries. Soon, by a basin near the Huai River, he found vast granite mountains. Picking up his pickaxe again, with all six summoned beasts working, over 2,000 granite blocks entered his backpack in about ten minutes.
[Side Quest: House Construction] Quest Description: Gather the following materials and hand them to the Ministry of Works craftsman to build your house. Deed: 1/1 Pine Logs: /2000 Sandstone: 0/5000 Granite: 2133/2000 Fir Wood: /2000 Red Gold: 1568/1500
Jiang Yuan glanced at his task bar; only 5,000 sandstone remained to complete all material collection. His mood lightened, and he hummed a tune as he teleported to the Panlong Mountain map, where the Panlong Headquarters of the Imperial State was located.
As he stepped into the Panlong Mountain map, Jiang Yuan saw the distant sky shimmering with multicolored lights. Riding his Dragon Beard Tiger closer, he found the Imperial State's Proud World Guild blocking the entrance to a granite mine, fiercely attacking players from the other three alliances trying to mine. The colorful lights he'd seen were their skills. Looking further into the mine, he saw all the miners were from Proud World.
"Brother, what's happening up ahead?" A player from the Tianbo Mansion's Questing Guild came running up behind Jiang Yuan. Noticing the player's health and mana bars were only half full, likely recently revived, Jiang Yuan stopped him to ask.
"Proud World is too domineering! They won't let anyone from other alliances mine granite here. This is an alliance zone, so killing us doesn't turn them red. They've gathered a bunch of people to block the way!" The Questing Guild player fumed, pointing at the Imperial State players.
"Come on, let's check it out!" Jiang Yuan, angered by the story, said to the player and pulled him forward.
"Stop!" Jiang Yuan's shout made the fighting players from Imperial State and the other alliances pause and turn around. "Hey, you Proud World folks are way too pushy! Why won't you let us mine?" Jiang Yuan pointed at the dozens of Proud World players, glaring.
"Jiang Yuan! He's here! Go tell the boss!" Someone from Proud World recognized him and called to a companion.
Seeing someone step up, players from Ten Thousand Alliance, Tianbo Mansion, and Cold River City gathered behind Jiang Yuan, facing off against Proud World. Soon, Proud World Dragon Emperor appeared before Jiang Yuan.
"Jiang Yuan? Why are you everywhere?" Dragon Emperor's face turned icy as he asked.
"Why won't you let us mine? When your Imperial State people came to Cold River City for fir and red gold, we didn't attack you!" Jiang Yuan cut to the chase.
"Whether you fight or not is your business. This is Imperial State, my Proud World's headquarters. I say no, and that's final!" Dragon Emperor sneered, pointing at Jiang Yuan.
"Oh, really? Today, I'm mining that granite no matter what. Not even Jesus could stop me!" Jiang Yuan, unfazed, said calmly, raising his hand. Ten thousand Dragon Beard Tigers appeared before Dragon Emperor!